Director's Corner

What is the ILC future programme beyond the Technical Design Report? How does the ILC project move forward if the decision on a linear collider construction project is delayed a few years? These questions and many others were addressed during the last Funding Agencies for Large Colliders meeting held on 22 January at SLAC, US.

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ILC scientists develop a robust and reliable positron target

by Leah Hesla

Scientists from the Cockcroft Institute, Daresbury Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory work on a rotating positron target for the ILC that can hold its own while producing about 1014 positrons per second for collisions with electrons.

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Scientists at KEK in Japan are currently developing are developping a 'distributed radiofrequency system' for delivering radiofrequency power to the ILC accelerating cavities. An alternative solution to the 'klystron cluster scheme', this powering method accommodates the ILC’s new one-tunnel design.

Image of the week

Another toy for particle physicists to play with: BELLE-II-detector model made of… LEGO! This work of University of Tokyo students is exhibited in Tokyo till 25 March, at the exhibition hall of the MEXT, KEK’s funding agency.

After all, if the Higgs proves to be near the lower end of its range of possible masses, as experiments indicate is likely, the Tevatron would have had a good shot at finding it—and maybe even beating the LHC to the punch.

IceCube is something different, an observatory built entirely beneath the ice. Along each of the 86 cables are strung 60 three-foot spherical detectors (…). These glass-covered orbs are designed to find evidence of neutrinos.

Using technology enabled by Ciena’s ActivFlex 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, the trial successfully transmitted data over a network connecting the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva and the IN2P3 Computing Center in Lyon, France.